interventions, I imagine the psychological flagellation and socio-sensory deprivation to be nearly intolerable for most human beings.
25
C. Gender Discrimination in Feminist Film Criticism
Actually, gender issues are not new issues in the world, there are so many discussion criticized about it. Gender itself, is breakthrough that feminism
approaches not only center on women’s problems but also attempts to build equality of role between men and women. Although, they concern both men
and women, at present gender studies are still mainly focused on women have been voiceless for so long. For centuries, women are treated rudely;
experienced intimidations and they had been considered as useless and inferior being by their family and society.
Therefore, the issues of gender have gotten big influence from feminists struggles that want to reach equality with men like in the discourses of
feminists’ thoughts. The feminist wants to prove that women are not passive, weak, and just accept all the bad treatments by men. Then, they want to prove
their existence in every aspect of life to get their equal right. It is a central aim of feminists thought to uncover concealed asymmetries of power in
differences of gender, and to work for a society in which the polarization of gender is abolished.
25
http:drjoanne.blogspot.com200910psychological-solitary-confinement.html, accessed on September 28, 2009
Because of those treatments, women will not just silence, and then they established a feminism movement. In the next development of civilization,
women realize their rights as a human being. They oppose the relations between men – as a group – and women – as another group – and fight all
hegemony, law, and rules that form women as inferior, subordinate, and second sex.
26
To analyze gender issues in this film, the writer use the feminist film criticism. Feminist film theory is theoretical film criticism derived from
feminist politics and feminist theory
27
. Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analyzed and their theoretical
underpinnings.
The development of feminist film theory was influenced by second wave feminism and the development of womens studies within the academy.
Feminist scholars began taking cues from the new theories arising from these movements to analyzing film. Initial attempts in the United States in the early
1970’s were generally based on sociological theory and focused on the function of women characters in particular film narratives or genres and of
stereotypes as a reflection of a societys view of women.
Films seem to represent the wider notion of culture that women only really have an existence in relation to men – at worst they are the property of their
26
Marissa Rueda, et all, Feminisme Untuk Pemula Yogyakarta: Resist Book, 2007, p.3
27
http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiFeminist_film_theory
fathers until they marry, when they become property of their husbands
28
. Women’s interests are often deemed too peripheral, too provincial or too
domestic to be of interest in a film. Most feminist approaches to film to share a common assumption; the
ways women are represented in mainstream commercial films reflect, justify, reinforce, and naturalize what Molly Haskell in her pioneering book From
Reverence to Rape calls “The Big Lie” of patriarchy, that women are inferior
to men and rightly occupy a subordinate place in culture. Feminist film critics work to raise our consciousness about the negative images of women in film
in order to denaturalize these images, to expose them as cultural constructs, not mirror reflections of the way women really are
29
. The feminist movement has committed to fight against patriarchy that
considers women as subordinate in cultural or social life. The main of feminism is to change women’s image to be more respected and to refuse the
opinion that women are weak and depend on their physical condition. The feminist wants to prove that women are not passive, weak, and just accept all
the bad treatments by men. Then, they want to prove their existence in every aspect of life to get their equal right. Like we can see from one of the
feminist’s book in United States Betty Friedan. “The feminist we’re pioneering on the front rage or women’s evolution.
They had a prove that women was not a passive, empty mirror, useless decoration, not a mind less animal, not a thing to be disposed by others,
incapable of voice in her own existence, before they could even begin with to fight for the rights. Women needed to become the human equal of men.”
28
Andrew M. Butler, Film Studies. pocket essentials 2005, p.86
29
Marilyn Fabe, Closely Watched Films; An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique. University of California press 2004, p.207
Feminist movement is a reform with the purpose of changing women’s image to be more respected. This movements is aimed at refusing an opinion
that says women are weak and depend on their physical condition. The feminist wants to get equal rights between men and women in every aspect of
life. Related to the film Changeling, this paper tries to analyze the gender
issues reflected on the gender discrimination in the film by applying the feminist film criticism. By using this theory, the researcher also tries to find
out the conclusion of these two research questions.
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDING
A. Analysis of The Gender Issues
